History's 9 Most Insane Rulers - by Scott Rank (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>Few mixtures are as toxic as absolute power and insanity. When nothing stands between a leader's delusional whims and seeing them carried out, all sorts of bizarre outcomes are possible. This book will look at the lives of the nine most mentally unbalanced figures in history. Some suffered from genetic disorders that led to schizophrenia, such as French King Charles VI, who thought he was made of glass. Others believed themselves to be God's representatives on earth and wrote religious writings that they guaranteed to the reader would get them into heaven, even if these leaders were barely literate. Whether it is Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I practicing archery on palace servants or Turkmenistan president-for-life Akhbar Turkmenbashi renaming the days of the week after himself and constructing an 80-foot-tall golden statue that revolves to face the sun, crazed leaders have plagued society for millenia. While such stories are amusing, this book also contemplates the addictive nature of power and the effects it has on those who cling to it for too long. It explores how leaders can undertake the extraordinarily complicated job of leading a country without their full mental faculties and sometimes manage to be moderately successful. It examines why society tolerates their actions for so long and even attempts to put a facade of normalcy on rulers, despite everyone knowing that they are mentally unstable. The book also explores if insane rulers are a relic of the age of monarchs and will die out in the age of democracy, or if they will continue to plague nations in the twenty-first century. Finally, as many armchair psychologists question the mental health of Donald Trump and other populist politicians in the United States and Europe, all but diagnosing them with mental illness, this book sets to show that truly insane rulers are categorically different in the ways they endanger their population.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><i><b>Madness and Power</b>.</i> <p/> Can the insane rule? Can insanity be a leadership quality? Scott Rank says yes (well, sometimes) in this fascinating look at nine of history's most notorious rulers, from the Roman emperor Caligula to the North Korean Communist dictator Kim Jong-il. <p/> Rank paints intimate portraits of these deeply flawed but powerful men, examining the role that madness played in their lives, the repercussions of their madness on history, and what their madness can tell us about the times in which they lived. <p/>In <i>History's 9 Most Insane Rulers</i>, you will meet: <p/>- King Charles VI of France, who thought he was made of glass<br> - Sultan Ibrahim I, who was driven mad by the sadistic succession battles of the Ottoman Empire<br> - Caligula, who built temples to himself and whose reign highlighted the lethal tensions between the power of the new Imperial Rome and the prerogatives of the old Roman Republic<br> - The Russian tsar who became known as Ivan "the Terrible"<br> - King George III of Britain, who not only lost his American colonies, but lost his mind as well<br> - Bavaria's "Mad" King Ludwig II, who left the world richer for his fabulous fairy tale castles and his patronage of the composer Richard Wagner <p/> Insane rulers did not die off with the last of the mad monarchs who inherited their power. Rank also examines the rise to power of crazed modern rulers, such as Idi Amin, who began as a lowly army cook and rose to the presidency of Uganda, and Saparmurat Niyazov, who ruled Turkmenistan and promoted a bizarre cult of personality around himself. <p/> Both entertaining and illuminating, History's 9 Most Insane Rulers is a must-read for anyone interested in the role insanity has played in history.<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>SCOTT RANK</b> is the author of twelve books, including The Age of Illumination: Science, Technology, and Reason in the Middle Ages, Lost Civilizations, and Off the Edge of the Map: Travelers and Explorers That Pushed the Boundaries of the Known World. His books have been translated into nine languages. A historian of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey, he is a professor and podcaster. He currently hosts the show History Unplugged, one of the most popular history podcasts today. He earned his Ph.D. in history from Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. Before going down the academic route he worked as a journalist in Istanbul. He lives in Kansas City with his family.
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